DRM Free Music and Vulcans
On the 25th anniversary of the Argentine invasion of Falklands, Steve Jobs and Eric Nicoli from EMI announce Digital Rights Management free downloads.
First, the Falklands - I have been reading a book about the
first RAF aerial bombing raid of the conflict - Vulcan 607. A very interesting read; quite different to my usual choice, but I chose this one as a Christmas present and thoroughly recommend it. The writer conveys the human and technical challenges in mounting the mission to bomb a runway many thousands of miles away, using planes scheduled for retirement three months later. I finished reading it at 1am today, totally failing to appreciate the coincidence of date. The Vulcan aircraft provide an interesting backdrop. Design work commenced in 1947, led by Lancaster Bomber designer Roy Chadwick. The engines were 4 Rolls Royce Olympus units, the same type that would be developed for use in Concorde. All this, so soon after WWII.
first RAF aerial bombing raid of the conflict - Vulcan 607. A very interesting read; quite different to my usual choice, but I chose this one as a Christmas present and thoroughly recommend it. The writer conveys the human and technical challenges in mounting the mission to bomb a runway many thousands of miles away, using planes scheduled for retirement three months later. I finished reading it at 1am today, totally failing to appreciate the coincidence of date. The Vulcan aircraft provide an interesting backdrop. Design work commenced in 1947, led by Lancaster Bomber designer Roy Chadwick. The engines were 4 Rolls Royce Olympus units, the same type that would be developed for use in Concorde. All this, so soon after WWII.Music... Following his essay published earlier this year, today we see the first publicly visible consequence with 
Steve Jobs accompanying Eric Nicoli announcing DRM free downloads. To summarise my understanding; from May, iTunes customers will be able to choose to pay 99p instead of 79p and in return receive an unlocked file, encoded at 256kbps, rather than the current locked ones at 128kbps. Such files can be played on any device capable of handling standard AAC encoded files, not just iPods and iTunes. The other important benefit is that 256kbps sounds better. In terms of ethics and whether consumers will rip off the record companies 
and artists by circulating unrestricted product... I don’t think so. If users want to overcome copy protection, they can easily by burning CD from iTunes. Of course if they own a CD, there is no protection at all. Steve Jobs makes this latter point in the video interview along with the full article. Now we await the domino effect throughout the industry. Thoughts?
Steve Jobs accompanying Eric Nicoli announcing DRM free downloads. To summarise my understanding; from May, iTunes customers will be able to choose to pay 99p instead of 79p and in return receive an unlocked file, encoded at 256kbps, rather than the current locked ones at 128kbps. Such files can be played on any device capable of handling standard AAC encoded files, not just iPods and iTunes. The other important benefit is that 256kbps sounds better. In terms of ethics and whether consumers will rip off the record companies and artists by circulating unrestricted product... I don’t think so. If users want to overcome copy protection, they can easily by burning CD from iTunes. Of course if they own a CD, there is no protection at all. Steve Jobs makes this latter point in the video interview along with the full article. Now we await the domino effect throughout the industry. Thoughts?And finally... Hands up those who tried pressing the play button on the video pic at the top of this entry? :-))
Monday, 2 April 2007
